Canada’s Hudson’s Bay to drop Ivanka Trump fashion line

Ivanka Trump listens as U.S. President Donald Trump hosts a lunch meeting with Republican members of Congress at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 26, 2018.
Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

Canada’s Hudson’s Bay will be dropping Ivanka Trump’s eponymous fashion line. The country’s oldest department said it will drop all Ivanka Trump products from its website and will gradually phase them out from its stores.

The retail giant said the decision was based on the brand’s performance. It has already deleted 168 Ivanka-branded clothing and shoes from its website, according to racked.com. It has also wiped out Ivanka’s name from the list of brands that it carries.

As for its physical stores, the retailer said it would drop the line from the stores on a gradual basis, according to Guardian. It also said that contrary to reports, the company’s decision to phase out the line was due to the Ivanka Trump fashion line’s poor performance on the shelves.

“Hudson’s Bay is phasing out this brand through the fall based on its performance,” the company said in a statement to Guardian. “As part of our regular course of business, we review our merchandise offerings and make appropriate changes.”

The company has faced social media pressure to drop the brand since Ivanka’s father, Donald Trump, has become the president of the United States of America. Canadian consumers have also ramped up their campaign to boycott the brand after Trump imposed tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminium and disparaging remarks about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whom he called “very weak and dishonest.”

According to Bloomberg, Ivanka’s brand was notified of the decision in fall 2017, or spring in Australia. The Hudson’s Bay Company also owns Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue, which are not affected by the change. Only Hudson’s Bay stores in Canada will no longer carry Ivanka Trump line.

The news was first noted by Shannon Coulter, who founded the #GrabYourWallet movement in October 2016. The group advocates for the boycott of stores that carry Trump family products. According to Coulter, Hudson’s Bay is the 40th company that has been removed from their boycott list.

Hudson’s Bay’s move comes about 18 months after Nordstrom announced it would no longer carry Ivanka’s line. It also cited poor performance of the brand as reason.

Ivanka’s products might be losing places to be sold at, but they wouldn’t be burdened with the new tariffs that her father has decided to impose to China. Trump enacted tariffs on billions’ worth of Chinese goods, effecting hundreds of products. Fashion items, which Ivanka’s line is about, are not included, though.